Livingstone beats Johnson 2012

The Mayoral election was close, suppose Ken had won.

How much would Red Ken's career be advanced by by that and by the Olypics.
 
I like Ken Livingstone, and would have been very happy to vote for him, but he's 67. Even imagining he takes just one term as Mayor, that still makes him 71. There aren't too many opportunities for career advancement. He had a pretty illustrious career anyway -- led the GLC for five years, MP for ten or fifteen, Mayor for eight (or twelve if he had won this year).
 
His age means he's unlikely to run again in 2016, so his career would probably come to a natural end there. The bigger butterfly is what this does to Boris' career. He's a loser all of a sudden but still had a four year national boost.
 

Thande

Donor
His age means he's unlikely to run again in 2016, so his career would probably come to a natural end there. The bigger butterfly is what this does to Boris' career. He's a loser all of a sudden but still had a four year national boost.

Depends on whether Boris can convince people that he was robbed by a national swing as a result of the government's incompetence and buiild on that into being a critic of Cameron. Though that would make it harder for him to re-enter parliament.
 
Depends on whether Boris can convince people that he was robbed by a national swing as a result of the government's incompetence and buiild on that into being a critic of Cameron. Though that would make it harder for him to re-enter parliament.

What about Zac Goldsmith giving up his seat? If Boris plays the "coalitions don't work in Britain and have warped this government into incompetence" then Zac's seat is all his.
 
What about Zac Goldsmith giving up his seat? If Boris plays the "coalitions don't work in Britain and have warped this government into incompetence" then Zac's seat is all his.

I'm not sure he'd get it so easily pre-recent runway ruckus. This would also turn him into a Peter Bone backbencher who slowly pisses away every career prospect he has by becoming (to Tory MPs, who he needs to impress) 'that bozo who lost us London and now undermines every single thing this government tries to do - we might not like it either but we are in power and hasn't he heard of loyalty?'

The last thing he'd want to do would be to become a new age post-74 Ted Heath.
 
Boris won't have the popularity he has now because he won't be the 'Olympics Mayor'. Boris can appear before a crowd of "normal" young people and get cheered - it's every politician's envy. So yeah, it'd damage his career.

Frankly, I don't see how Boris could ever be prime minister, mostly because the Tories hate him.
 
It's a bit difficult to dredge anything positive out of the simple facts of being a) beaten by Ken Livingstone and b) beaten when you were going into the election as the favourite. The fashionable judgement on Boris politically would be just as roundly negative as it is currently positive. As such I'm not sure where he would go from this defeat.

What about Zac Goldsmith giving up his seat? If Boris plays the "coalitions don't work in Britain and have warped this government into incompetence" then Zac's seat is all his.

No way. Forget that. An electorally rejected Boris is both not going to be the man on a white horse some Tories now view him as, and is also not even going to risk tryng to get into Parliament though a by-election in a marginal seat. Unless a Tory in a safe seat home counties seat cops it or is forced to resign, he's out of it until 2015.
 
Last edited:
Top